In an effort to ensure California physicians can continue to provide care to patients during the COVID-19 outbreak, the California Medical Association (CMA) is partnering with State of California and Altais to provide free medical-grade personal protective equipment (PPE) – including N95 and surgical masks, gowns, gloves and face shields – to small and medium sized medical practices across the state.

Over the last several months, many physicians have had to limit hours or close their doors completely because they cannot find the PPE they need to keep their offices open. This supply of PPE will help fortify California’s health care infrastructure as we continue to wrestle with the COVID-19 pandemic and issues with the PPE supply chain.

“CMA and its component medical societies are proud to be working with the state Office of Emergency Services (OES) to ensure that physicians of California can keep their practices open, and keep themselves and their patients safe,” said CMA President Peter N. Bretan, Jr., M.D. “We want to thank Gov. Newsom and his administration for ensuring this essential protective equipment gets into the hands of the physicians who need it so they can provide essential health care to their patients.”

OES is making millions of pieces of PPE available free of charge to practices with 50 or fewer health care providers. The equipment will be distributed at dozens of drive-through events throughout the state, organized by CMA and its component medical societies.

Practices with 50 or fewer providers can receive up to a two-month supply to ensure they can reopen with proper safety precautions in place (exact amount may vary by practice size, specialty and location). This equipment is available to all qualifying physician practices, whether or not they are CMA members.

Physicians can reserve their PPE by going to cmadocs.org/PPE. no later than July 21. The “drive through” pick up events will be hosted on various dates by county between July 27 and August 12.

Financial support for the distribution of this PPE was provided by Altais, a new health care services company that helps physicians maximize the health and well-being of their patients in a way that is sustainably affordable and maintains professional satisfaction.

“It is our honor to partner with the CMA and the State of California to provide much needed personal protective equipment to California physicians and clinicians on the front line,” said Altais President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bailet, M.D. “This PPE donation is aligned to Altais’ mission to ignite an exceptional health care system that cultivates the health and wellbeing of physicians, patients, and the clinical community.”